Bernie Sanders
Related: About this forumBernie Sanders To Chris Hayes: "Don't Become An Inside The Beltway Pundit" (video)
BERNIE SANDERS: All of my ideas, I knew in my heart were going to resonate with the American people, but I did not believe they would resonate quite so fast.
CHRIS HAYES: But do they resonate with the American people or with a very small subsection of the Democratic party? Who are liberals and they love Bernie Sanders and they're watching us right now? Or does this appeal more broadly?
BERNIE SANDERS: Oh Chris! Don't become an inside-the-beltway pundit.
CHRIS HAYES: You know it is partly tongue in cheek!
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2015/09/11/bernie_sanders_to_chris_hayes_dont_become_an_inside_the_beltway_pundit.html
2:00 min
great interview with Chris.
Bernie Sanders Interview: Americans 'Don't Want More Establishment Politics'
Chris Hayes talks to Senator Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., about why the new poll numbers surprised him and why he won't repeat what he calls Obama's "biggest political mistake."
» Subscribe to MSNBC: http://on.msnbc.com/SubscribeTomsnbc
jalan48
(13,797 posts)smokey nj
(43,853 posts)SoapBox
(18,791 posts)Like others, I have wondered if we will see a change in his Bernie coverage after such a good session.
I thought Comcast cancelled his show.
leftcoastmountains
(2,968 posts)dreamnightwind
(4,775 posts)It's been very sad to me over the last few years to watch Chris growing more and more into an inside the beltway pundit (edit to add I used to find him capable of insightful analysis, with a razor-sharp eye for seeing what was wrong with something, now I see him more as a useful tool to provide a safe tokenized leftish viewpoint that gives undue credibility to the general media dreck without being allowed to challenge it). Then later in the interview (5:45 into it), Chris talks about the forces that act on him in exactly that direction. Chris says he discovered there are all kinds of institutional incentives that pull him as a journalist, basically away from his lefty roots.
This was a wonderful exchange between him and Bernie, and yet another example of how, when an honest candidate makes a run, it changes what gets talked about, and people look at other things, not directly related to that candidate, in different ways.
A feeling I often have about how much we lose when we just give in to centrist cynicism as "the best we can do", or "even if he gets elected, what can he accomplish with this congressional context". You can change a lot, just by showing up and being real about things, by fighting on the right side of issues, it really makes a difference. When giving in to centrist cynism, what happens is the other side (the corporate side or the RW side, depending on the context, and sometimes they are the same) gets validated when it should instead be ridiculed and fought on principle. Because, in so many ways, seen and unseen, it makes a difference.
Stardust
(3,894 posts)they feel she will get more accomplished with this congress. But your statement,
"A feeling I often have about how much we lose when we just give in to centrist cynicism as "the best we can do", or "even if he gets elected, what can he accomplish with this congressional context". You can change a lot, just by showing up and being real about things, by fighting on the right side of issues, it really makes a difference. When giving in to centrist cynism, what happens is the other side (the corporate side or the RW side, depending on the context, and sometimes they are the same) gets validated when it should instead be ridiculed and fought on principle. Because, in so many ways, seen and unseen, it makes a difference"
gives me some assurance that I'm not some naive lefty with irrelevant ideals.
I do wish Bernie would be more specific when he says the American people need to mobilize, give people some specifics that they can rest their hats on, so to speak. Knowing Bernie, he will begin to elucidate his ideas on how we can effect the changes we desperately need in due time.
dreamnightwind
(4,775 posts)I'm as cynical as anyone, doesn't mean there is no value in fighting to make things better though. Many of the gains from fighting for the right thing are at first unseen, and bear fruit later.
I hate to think of the things Hillary would accomplish with congress, the issues they could agree on are not ones I would want to see enacted, they would be the ones their donors want, IMO.
Did you watch the clip in the OP? Chris goes over examples re how Bernie actually knows how to work with opponents and get things done that still serve the interests of the people. His issues aren't driven by what his large corporate donors want, since he doesn't have any, and he manages to find ways to actually get amendments passed that help people (such as he got funding for community health clinics added the Obamacare as a condition of supporting the legislation).
Re your last paragraph, I think Bernie is just too polite to say that Obama used the grassroots to get elected, then abandoned them once in office, so instead Bernie says he would be different than Obama by staying connected to his mobilized electoral base to drive change. It will of course be difficult, in the first place to get Bernie elected, and in the second place to support him once elected. I doubt he has specific plans for that activism, but I don't doubt that he will use any tools at his disposal, one of the main ones of which is us, to push for change once he is in office.
Stardust
(3,894 posts)aware of, and I've been a follower since he began his Brunch With Bernie on Thom Hatmann's show years ago. Chris seems a bit torn, like his left roots make him want to support Bernie, but he's being inexorably influenced by his corporate masters.
dreamnightwind
(4,775 posts)I think to some extent Chris has been converted more towards centrism, he's still better than most.
I watch the brunch with bernie all the time too, love it.